The Facebook Police: company offers rare insight into report system

Facebook has provided a rare sneak peek into its complex policing service, showing users just what happens after they report an incident on the social network.

A rather mazy flow diagram has been published on the site with an accompanying note explaining the process, as the company seeks to reassure its 900 million users that their safety is taken care of. Facebook says "hundreds" of employees throughout the world handle the reports right around the clock, which maintains "constant coverage of our support queues for all our users, no matter where they are."

The Facebook cops are divided into four specific teams: the Safety team, the Hate and Harassment team, the Access team, and the Abusive Content team. But a ‘social reporting tool' was also launched last year to bypass the safety officials when possible, as it "allows people to reach out to other users or trusted friends to help resolve the conflict or open a dialogue about a piece of content."

Company spokesman Fred Wolens said Facebook decided to publish the chart so it could provide more "transparency" about how user reports are dealt with. "There was a feeling that once users clicked 'report,' it was not immediately clear what happens," he said.